Members of the bright star church in Chicago released balloons in memory of teenage victims of gun violence throughout the city. Many members of bright star gather often to pray in front of high schools that are threatened with gun violence, neighborhood violence and gang violence. The church members travel to the south side of Chicago in bright yellow school buses. Armed with hope and their Bibles this ceremony is a way for a positive change to their community.

Albert Vaughn was the neighborhood guardian, the older teenager who would play ball with the younger kids and try to keep them safe from trouble, friends said. “If he was guilty of anything, he was guilty of always protecting these kids,” said Trualanda Fields, a neighborhood mother who was among the 50 people who gathered Monday night on South Throop Street to pay tribute to the 18-year-old they called Li’l Albert. They wept, sang and often chanted “say no more,” a favorite phrase of Vaughn’s before helping someone.

Chicago, Illinois USA Families pray together on the Westside of Chicago to remember a young girl that was raped and killed. Parents who lost their children to violence often come together to support other families who have experience the same tragedy.

Tommie (left) and Pamela Bosley (back) , whose 18-year-old son, Terrell, was shot to death in April 2006 in the their church parking lot of his in the Chicago of South Side.